Common Ground

Common Ground

Building bridges through feltmaking

Farmleigh, Phoenix Park, 25thSeptember – 12th October 2014

An exhibition of felt works by members of Feltmakers Ireland and feltmakers from Hungary to celebrate the friendship we built up over the past few years through our common interest and love of feltmaking . We have shared and exchanged skills, explored each other`s history, traditions and heritage. We are actively creating heritage for the future through our shared passion for handcrafts in our multi-cultural world. This ancient craft is a great medium for innovation and design.

We are connected by our shared passion for an ancient craft which is undergoing a renaissance and where we are creating heritage for the future.

Kelp Predicting the Weather

ating a common ground between technology and art in our Kelp Necklace that predicts the weather.I had also two personal entries that were curated for the exhibition:

Viruses

Viruses- a presented three of the pieces from my series: Common Cold, the Noro Virus and HP Virus.They were three new pieces that I developed specially

Viruses Photo: Gabi McGrath

for this exhibition. At the time I was entering it the Ebola Virus was raging around the world bringing yet another pandemic to remind us that our battle with viruses is pretty much a David and Goliath event.

and

The Chest Piece that Cures Cough

Flu is another one of those things: proactive behaviour does not make any difference to its outcome- you just have to sit this one out. The same way that mums giving you a piece of their

Photo: Gabi McGrathChest Piece that cures cough.

mind would rarely result in you getting wiser, but again you have to sit that one out. So the piece that Cheryl & myself made was about that – certain things in life are good to have even if they do not lead to the miracle outcome they claim they would have one you. So we made the chest piece inspired by the red flannel that people used to put in Ireland when they would get a cold. It was believed that if you put a flannel on your chest it would cure your cough.

Our piece starts shouting advice from your mum every time you cough. Both the piece and your mum voice cannot medically cure your cough, but could do woodles for your wellbeing….. Right? Of course your mum is always right.